Interlude – Granada

So today we are taking a break from the ‘touristo’ activity and I’m going to write a little about living here in general.  We thought it might be interesting and informative.  We can yak ad nauseam about the castles, churches, and graveyards, (and the hordes) but the point of the trek to elsewhere was to see what it was like to live as a local here.  Or at least try to.  We will always have one foot in both camps until we rent/buy in someplace, but we can try to be local as much as possible.

 

 

Anyone can come here on vacation, spend some money, eat out a lot, and go home again but we no longer have a permanent home to go back to.  This gives us a lot of monetary advantage in that we are not having to pay living costs in two places.  The downside of course, is we have nowhere to go back to.  This forces us to always be planning the ‘next’ bunch of places to book and stay in.  It’s a challenge and can be very tedious.  But we have total freedom and so far, we are loving it.

 

 

 

What’s it like to live here in Spain?  It’s a beautiful country, the little we have seen so far, the weather is decent (except for the last week in Granada, but hey, the weather is the weather and it’s finally warm and sunny), and the alcohol is cheap!   Staying in airBnB’s so far, has been positive and is much cheaper than hotels.  The hosts all seem very nice and we get info and tips on the area, what to do, where to buy things, etc.  All of the places come with some sort of kitchen, laundry facility, internet connectivity, and TV.  Cooking you can’t do in a hotel room usually and laundry service tends to be not so cheap.  We’ve been able to book and stay in some very nice places for an average price of $80CDN a day and that works out to what?  $2400CDN/month?  We think that’s a good deal for what we are doing and if we got an actual apartment for 6 months or a year, I would guess the average monthly rent would be closer to $1800.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we tend to buy groceries daily or every other day and have our meals in as opposed to going out.  Sampling the local food at restaurants is nice but it gets expensive.  The average menu del dia is around €10 each or more and if you start going out to the tapas places at night, well….  So, we tend to have breakfast consisting of an egg, fruit, and some toast, something I normally skipped back home, a late afternoon snack (cerveza, cheese, bread), and we have dinner later with some cheap wine.  Groceries are a little cheaper here than in Vancouver, especially the local produce, and a single can/bottle of beer is less than a  $1, and a drinkable table wine can be had for about $5 -$6.

We also don’t have the expense of a vehicle either.  Who needs the hassle.  The buses and trains here are efficient, relatively inexpensive, and seem to go to most places.  We just purchased a senior’s train pass which gives us 40% off on weekdays / 25% off on weekends.  We walk everywhere in the city centers (5 to 12Km most days).  It keeps us in shape.  Our airfare from Barcelona to Granada (about a 100km less than Vancouver to Calgary), cost all of $60CDN each.  Even the touristo things weren’t all that bad, The Sagrada was €15, Monserrat €22, Alhambra €14, Graveyard €0.

We like it here.  There’s a different pace to life.  You could live here for a lot less than in Vancouver but I suppose most places are less expensive than Vancouver these days.  We don’t miss it much though and what I certainly don’t miss is the feeling that I’m being taxed to death.  Yes, there are taxes here, but they are not so much in your face as in BC.

And we’re told that Portugal is less expensive that Spain.  What’s not to like!  Not missing work much either 😊.